Visions of Gerard
Written in 1956 and published in 1963, Visions of Gerard is the most tender book in Jack Kerouac's Duluoz Legend. It recalls his older brother Gerard, who died of rheumatic fever at nine, when Jack was four. The novel mixes fragmented memory with family lore, set in working-class French-Canadian Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1920s. Gerard appears as a saintly figure who tends to wounded animals, instructs his younger brother in kindness, and dies surrounded by neighborhood mourners and visiting nuns. Kerouac's Catholicism, often submerged in the road books, is fully present here, braided with his Buddhist reading of the late 1950s. The prose is musical and unhurried, more litany than narrative. It is a small book about an enormous loss and the way grief shapes a writer's whole later life. A quiet entry point into Kerouac for readers who find On the Road too restless.
What you might want to know about Visions of Gerard
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Jack Kerouac's autobiographical novella about his older brother Gerard, who died at nine and shaped Kerouac's inner life.
Visions of Gerard was written by Jack Kerouac, published in 1963 by Penguin Books, Limited.
Visions of Gerard is 151 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Visions of Gerard takes most readers 2 to 3 hours to finish.
Visions of Gerard is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.